Monsef’s appointment is only half a plan for democratic reform

Fourteen years ago, Canada sent its military – and later its diplomats – to Afghanistan with the aim, in part, of rebuilding the country’s battered government.

Now, a woman who grew up under the threat of Taliban violence will be in charge of reforming Canada’s democratic institutions.

Maryam Monsef, the new MP from Peterborough who was appointed minister for Democratic Institutions on Wednesday, has been put in charge of one of the government’s most important and difficult files.

It will prove crucial to the aura of ambition Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wants to keep alive for his government. And it’s a portfolio that needs to start moving now if it’s to have any success. But Monsef’s appointment is only a partial demonstration of the Liberals’ ability to succeed with democratic reform.

Monsef left Afghanistan and eventually arrived in Canada in 1996, the same year the Taliban took Kabul and imposed their strict fundamentalist views on the entire country. When she won her seat on October 19, she became Canada’s first Afghan-born MP.

“I know how precious this gift of democracy is, and I also know how easily it can just be taken away, almost overnight,” Monsef told Postmedia this month after she won the seat once held by Dean Del Mastro, a man who went to jail for cheating to win the 2008 general election.

“So it’s a privilege. It’s a great privilege.”

Monsef’s background will be instrumental in selling the Liberal government’s bold promise to end Canada’s first-past-the-post electoral system, so named because the winner of a riding is the person who accumulates the most votes.

Canada, like the U.S. and the U.K., elects its federal government through FPTP, and so do the provinces and territories. Many other countries have adopted reforms that make up for the system’s shortcomings.

The glaring problem with FPTP is that it allows a party to win a majority of seats in the House of Commons – and form a government – while taking much less than half of the popular vote. To ensure a legislature better resembles the national vote, many countries around the world use ranked ballots or proportional representation to even out the differences.

Another problem with FPTP is that it encourages us to vote strategically, to defeat a particular candidate or party, instead of voting for the kind of government we actually want.

The push for democratic reform in Canada has been, to date, a failure. Popular referenda in P.E.I., British Columbia and Ontario in the 2000s all fell short of convincing enough voters of the need for change.

Part of the problem has been the pitch. Describing a new electoral process can easily become convoluted. And underlining the need for change – especially after an election which saw voter turnout spike – can be a messaging nightmare, too.

Which is why Monsef’s appointment is shrewd. She could tell Canadians why they need a better, fairer system of electing governments simply by telling the story of her own family’s search for a better, freer life.

Putting a political rookie in the job has risks, however. A popular appetite for change won’t be easy to generate. But the Liberals have a way to get around this lack of experience.

That’s where the rubber will meet the road. It will be where the Liberals will clash with the Conservatives and the NDP — who support the status quo and mixed-member proportional representation, respectively. Getting this debate right will be critical, since the accusation that the Liberals want a system that favours their own political strengths would be fatal to the democratic reform project.

Monsef doesn’t necessarily need to chair that committee. The Trudeau government could put an old master of Commons procedure in charge of getting the opposition on board, and of teaming up with Monsef to pitch the reforms to the public.

The government gave itself until May 2017 to introduce legislation based on the committee’s advice.

With Monsef’s appointment, the Liberals have the symbolism down pat. What they need now is a strategy. Like Afghanistan itself, they still have a long way to go.